KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — An Air Force staff sergeant was sentenced Wednesday to nine months’ confinement, reduction in rank to E-1 and a bad-conduct discharge for possession and display of child pornography.
Staff Sgt. Jason Hooks, 31, pleaded guilty to having on his personal computers at least 37 images or videos of minors engaging in sexual acts.
“Out of curiosity I found the material that brought me to the courtroom today,” Hooks said tearfully in his statement to the judge before sentencing.
A crew chief assigned to the 18th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Hooks said in the stipulation of fact that after arriving on Okinawa in March 2004 without his fiancee, now his wife, he began viewing adult pornography on his computer.
Around November of that year, he became “curious about different kinds of erotic material,” he said.
He began surfing a pornographic Web site using the search term “teen.”
As Hooks told the court about how he viewed images and videos of girls he clearly could tell were not anywhere near legal age, his wife buried her head in her hands and sobbed.
Some of the children in the pornography he viewed have been matched to known child victims, according to court documents.
Prosecutor Capt. William Deitch said in the sentencing portion of the court-martial that those children were victimized again by Hooks’ “indulgence in the perverted subculture.”
His actions added to the demand that fuels the marketplace for illegal pornography, Deitch said.
Defense attorney Capt. Michael Bibbo said Hooks has 12 years of excellent service in the Air Force and is a “stellar NCO and maintainer.”
Out of the about 10,000 pornographic items on his computer, the “overwhelming majority were of adults,” Bibbo said.
The 37 involving children were merely a “drop in the bucket,” he said, adding that Hooks is not a collector of child porn, a predator or a danger to society.
In a shaken and soft voice, Hooks apologized to the Air Force and to the children in the pornography he viewed.
“I am truly, deeply sorry that I was in any way a part of their suffering,” he said.
With the conviction, Hooks will have to register as a sex offender.
